PHILADELPHIA — With one week of training camp to prepare after the NHL's four-month lockout, it would be foolish to expect play to be at its usual level for the middle of January. The Pittsburgh Penguins certainly didn't, and that was why they came away victorious in their opening game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.

Tyler Kennedy and James Neal scored off faceoffs in the first period, and Chris Kunitz added an empty-net goal in the third to lift the Penguins past their archrivals, who tallied the afternoon's prettiest goal on a long pass from Scott Hartnell to newly-minted captain Claude Giroux. Those style points meant far less to the Penguins than the two points they collected in the standings.

"We tried the fancy thing last year, and it didn't work out too well," Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said, referring to the Penguins' six-game elimination from the first round of the playoffs, in a series that featured 30 Philadelphia goals. "You get in a run-and-gun game with that team, it's kind of 50-50 who's gonna win the series, and I thought we played a lot more responsibly today. It definitely wasn't perfect, but it was a good start against a team that we had some bad memories from in the playoffs."

The Penguins had eight months to think about everything that went wrong for them last spring, and knowing that they got away from their strengths proved helpful as they returned to the ice. They played a relatively simple, straight-ahead game, and did not get involved in the extracurricular activities that get the Philadelphia crowd into a lather.

In fact, aside from a few derisive chants at the officials, and some boos for Sidney Crosby, it barely felt like a Flyers-Penguins game. Part of that certainly had to do with Pittsburgh taking a 2-0 lead after 7:20, and never looking back.

"That might be a little easier when you're on the road, to simplify it," Crosby said. "That's good for us, because we're going to have a lot of games on the road at the start."

The afternoon portion of the NHL's opening day schedule saw road teams win all three games, with the Penguins joining the victorious Ottawa Senators in Winnipeg, and the Chicago Blackhawks spoiling the Los Angeles Kings' banner-raising day. After so long away from thousands of cheering fans, it seemed like there was a bit of an element of trying to do too much to put on a show, especially at the start.

"I think guys were just trying to — the work ethic was there, but the structure wasn't really there," Giroux said. "It was a little bit sloppy, but I think guys kind of regrouped in the second period, and I think we had a solid second period."

The Flyers did have a solid middle frame, outshooting the Penguins, 11-8, and getting their goal when Giroux got a step on the backchecking Kunitz to redirect Hartnell's pass under Marc-Andre Fleury's left pad. Philadelphia also had a 9-7 advantage in the faceoff circle in the second period, after Pittsburgh had won 17 of the 27 draws in the first.

Faceoff numbers are not always indicative of the action, but it was notable that Crosby and reigning MVP Evgeni Malkin combined to go 20-for-32, gaining possession for the Penguins when they had their top offensive talent on the ice. For a team trying to keep things simple, that was critical on Saturday.

"You talk about team execution, executing so you can have success," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "If you think you're going to go D-to-D and cross-ice, it's just not going to be there. The team execution has to take a little different approach, with the simplicity of it, and the expectations have to adjust as well, with what's going to happen, taking more opportunities maybe to put pucks in where you might not do that at the 70-game mark. That expectation does have to change, and you have to give yourself a chance to have success out there, and you saw that from both teams at different parts of the game."

Bylsma compared his philosophy for the opener to preparing for the Winter Classic and a game where dicey ice conditions demand a simplified approach. Saturday's game was far from classic, but it was a triumph of the Penguins staying within a limited system to play an effective game and start the season on the right foot.